The present invention relates generally to contact centers and specifically to controlling the volume and/or type of contacts in a networked call center.
In automatic call-distribution (ACD) systems, calls incoming to a call center are answered and handled by a plurality of agents. The ACD system automatically distributes and connects incoming calls to whatever agents are suited to handling the calls and are free, i.e., not handling other calls at the moment. As used herein, a xe2x80x9ccallxe2x80x9d refers to any mode or type of contact between two entities, including without limitation voice calls, VoIP, text-chat, e-mail, fax, electronic documents, web forms, voice messages, and video calls, to name but a few.
Due to the random and peaked nature of inbound calls from customers, a call center frequently becomes overloaded when no suitable agents are available to handle calls when the calls come in. The calls are placed in different queues based upon some preestablished criteria and are placed in each queue in the order of their arrival and/or priority. Numerous techniques have been devised for determining an actual or anticipated wait time for each enqueued item, and the enqueued items are typically serviced based on the actual and/or anticipated wait time. Although this approach is effective in many applications, the approach is unable to control incoming call volume and therefore customers can still experience long wait times. Long wait times can lead to customer frustration and defection.
In another approach to managing call volume, access to the contact center is limited by denying access during busy periods when particular inbound call volume thresholds have been exceeded. Denying access to a caller after the caller has taken the trouble to phone the contact center can also lead to customer frustration and defection.
These and other needs are addressed by the method and architecture of the present invention. The invention is generally directed to a method for controlling call or contact volume in which a collection of information is provided for viewing by a contacting entity to influence the behavior of the contacting entity. The contacting entity will typically electronically contact the contact center such as via the Internet. The collection of information can be varied among contacting entities depending on the desirability of servicing each such contacting entity.
In one embodiment of the invention, a method for controlling a volume of contacts to be serviced by a contact center is provided that includes the steps of:
(a) analyzing one or more predetermined types of information associated with a contacting entity; and
(b) creating or constructing or providing a collection of information (e.g., a web page, contact icon, live caller button, etc.) for viewing (e.g., on a computer monitor of the contacting entity via a web server and a web browser, etc.) by the contacting entity in response to the analyzing step. The collection of information is configured or designed to influence the behavior of the contacting entity. By influencing contacting entity behavior, the volume of incoming contacts with agents can be controlled dynamically. The ability to control inbound call or agent contact volume dynamically can render the contact center more efficient and profitable and easier to manage.
By way of example, a contacting entity typically initially contacts the contact center via a web server and a web browser, such as by browsing on the Internet. The contact center must then determine whether or not the contacting entity should be encouraged to or discouraged from directly contacting an agent of the contact center. Typically, the contact of the agent will be by means of a voice contact. In this manner, the volume of incoming (direct) contacts to agents is controlled dynamically.
In one configuration, the contact center provides the collection of information for viewing by the contacting entity by transmitting the information over a network. This configuration is particularly suited to the Internet and specifically to an Internet call center supporting an E-commerce web-site.
The predetermined types of information associated with each of the plurality of contacting entities can be any of a broad variety of information. In one configuration, the information includes at least one of (a) information provided by the contact center to the contacting entity in the transaction (e.g., a file or collection of information such as a web page or file address such as a web address, a universal or uniform resource locator (URL), etc.), (b) information provided by the contacting entity to the contact center in the transaction (e.g., an answer to a query such as a webform, a cookie, login and/or password information, the geographic location of the entity, the wealth of the entity, the type of contacting entity (business or individual), etc.), (c) information that is unique to the contacting entity that was not provided by the entity in the particular transaction (e.g., historic business volume for the entity (which is typically stored in the memory of the contact center), etc.), (d) a wait time (whether actual or predicted) associated with the contacting entity, and/or (e) a staffing level of the contact center and/or a skill level in the contact center.
The analyzing step can be performed in many different ways. In one configuration, the analyzing step is performed by comparing a value associated with the contact and/or the contacting entity to a predetermined value(s). In this manner, when there are too many inbound calls or agent contacts to the contact center the contact center agent""s can preferentially service only those contacts constituting more profitable types of business.
The creating or constructing or providing step can be performed in many different ways depending upon the specific application. In one configuration, this step includes the substep of selecting at least one of the following features for the collection of information based on the analyzing step: icon type, icon size, icon color (which includes not only differing colors but also different shades of the same color), message type, message size, message color (which includes not only differing colors but also different shades of the same color). As will be appreciated, an xe2x80x9ciconxe2x80x9d is a picture on a display that represents a particular object (e.g., a phone), an operation (e.g., live caller or help button), and/or a group or ordering or collection of files. In another configuration, the creating or constructing or providing step includes at least one of omitting an icon from the collection of information and adding an icon to the collection of information. In another configuration, this step includes at least one of omitting a message from the collection of information and adding a message to the collection of information. In yet another configuration, when this step is performed for a first contacting entity an icon (and/or message) is omitted from a first collection of information (or first display) corresponding to the first contacting entity and when the step is performed for a second contacting entity the icon (and/or message) is included in a second collection of information (or second display) corresponding to the second contacting entity.
In another configuration, the method includes the additional steps of:
determining a staffing level of the contact center or a skill in the contact center or a customer type serviced by the contact center; and
determining if the contact center has at least one of an available working agent for a selected contact and/or a wait time in excess of a predetermined amount for the selected contact. In this configuration, the displayed collection of information is varied as set forth in the steps noted above when the contact center or a skill level or customer type is insufficiently staffed and/or the contact center is busy.
In another embodiment, a system for controlling a volume of contacts to be serviced by a contact center is provided that includes:
(a) analyzing means (e.g., software) for analyzing one or more predetermined types of information associated with a contacting entity; and
(b) providing means (e.g., software) for providing a collection of information for viewing by the contacting entity in response to input from the analyzing means.
In yet another embodiment, a system for controlling a volume of agent contacts to be serviced by a contact center is provided that includes a display controller for controlling a file of information viewed by an entity contacting the contact center. In response to a first signal from the display controller (or in a first mode), a first display (or first collection of information) is provided to a first contacting entity to encourage the first contacting entity to continue a first contact or initiate a new contact such as with an agent. In response to a second signal from the display controller (or in a second mode), a second display (or second collection of information) is provided to a second contacting entity to discourage the second contacting entity from continuing a second contact or initiating a new contact such as with an agent.
In one configuration, in the first mode the first display has a first appearance and in the second mode the second display has a second appearance. The first appearance differs from the second appearance in one or more of the following respects: the presence or absence of an icon, the presence or absence of a message, icon type, icon size, icon color, message type, message size, and message color.
The system can include one or more different components depending upon the application. By way of example, the system can include a valuator for assigning a value to a contact and/or a contacting entity; a comparer for comparing the value assigned to a contact and/or contacting entity with a predetermined value to provide the display controller with input regarding whether to transmit the first or second signal to a computational component; a wait time predictor to provide wait time information to the display controller; and/or a call center analyzer to determine a level of staffing of the contact center, of a customer type, and/or of a skill level in the contact center.
The above-described embodiments and configurations are neither complete nor exhaustive. As will be appreciated, other embodiments of the invention are possible utilizing, alone or in combination, one or more of the features set forth above or described in detail below.